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Gold/Mining/Energy : AVL.V - AVALON VENTURES -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elizabeth Andrews who wrote (1360)	7/31/2000 10:35:24 PM
From: Gary K	Respond to of 1474

Whopper fans. Check this out!Zimbabwe's mining industry facing imminent collapse Source: Africa News Service Publication date: 2000-07-28 Harare - Zimbabwe's mines are faced with closure after government's pledges to secure a package of incentives including granting them permission to establish Foreign Currency Accounts (FCAs) failed to materialise, the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe has said. New president of the Chamber, James Maposa, said despite representations to the highest level of government the mining industry was sinking fast due to a plethora of viability problems. Heading the solutions list was the need for the industry players to be classified as exporters so they enjoy the benefits of opening accounts in foreign currency which is currently in short supply. "We have been talking to the government and to the Reserve Bank but we now only hope something is going to come soon," Maposa told the Zimbabwe Independent in Bulawayo this week. "The situation of the industry has been brought to the attention of government repeatedly but there seems to be a lack of will to act, especially for the gold sector which is nothing without the foreign currency," he said. The mining industry, contrary to earlier estimates, contributes 6% to the country's GDP, 3% of which is from gold production. Figures for 1999 show that gold production was at 27 tonnes worth $9,92 billion. Vice-President Joseph Msika, who was guest speaker at the 61st annual general meeting of the Chamber of Mines, held for the first time in Bulawayo last month, pledged that government was attending to the crisis facing the industry. He said government would reduce levies for the mining industry. These included customs duty, import tax, surtax and sales tax. Government had accepted a proposal for the mining industry to operate FCAs subject to a monitoring mechanism being put in place. "The chamber will continue to dialogue with government and we welcome the new Minister of Mines (Sydney Sekera-mayi) whom we hope will bring a fresh set of skills," Maposa said. "In June government recognised that the industry was operating under difficult circumstances. The unfortunate thing is that the crisis has passed the phase of good intentions; what we need now is action to save the industry," he said. While the mining industry is currently in the pits as a result of an assortment of problems, gold producers have been particularly hit by the dip in the gold price which reached a 20-year average monthly low of US$256 last year. Maposa said the industry was pushing for gold producers to enjoy the same benefits as other exporters. Currently producers sell their gold to the Reserve Bank which in turn sells it to various markets. As a result, the industry has been heavily hit by the foreign currency shortage and a severe squeeze on margins and profitability. A series of meetings in the past year between the chamber, executive committee members, central bank and mines ministry officials to find a solution have led to false starts. Besides, the meetings had resulted in the re-examination of half- measures of the past such as the floor price scheme for gold, gold price stabilisation scheme and the 9% export retention scheme. (Copyright 2000 Zimbabwe Independent.) Distributed via Africa News Online by Africa News Service. Publication date: 2000-07-28 My comment, I wonder how Bikita`s doing now ??? This being the case bodes very favorably for moving the Big Whopper foward rapidly if they can not deliver on their contracts. Best wishes to AVL supporters on ALL fronts. Kind regards, Gary K